Green with Envy
by littlemsbookworm
Summary: Verde is jealous, Corobo is unaware, and Liam is stuck in the middle. Again.


**I do not own Little King's Story or it's characters, I just love them.**

"Liam! He's doing it _AGAIN_!"

It was a beautiful summer evening in the kingdom of Alpoko. The sun was slowly sinking down behind the trees, casting a warm red glow on the land. Across the river carefree children chased each other through the grass, and tried to catch the fireflies that drifted lazily through the warm air. It was the perfect sort of night for lounging around, which caused Liam to wonder why he wasn't doing that exact thing at this moment and how on earth he had gotten dragged into his present situation in the first place.

The Anything Minister yawned loudly as he turned to look in the direction that Verde was facing. The Records Minister had a look on her face as though she had just smelled something rotten, and following her line of sight across the darkening square Liam could see why. Just across the courtyard stood King Corobo- surrounded by beautiful princesses and with an enamored look on his tiny face as they giggled and played with his hair.

"So he's spending some time with the ladies Verde. I don't see how this justifies our camping out in the shrubbery to spy on him."

"It's called reconnaissance, and he's supposed to be spending his time running this kingdom! There are finances to manage, ordinances to approve, jobs to delegate! There's no time to be wasting on pampered princess floozies!"

"Look, just because we aren't all you and don't all revolve our lives around work and actually want to relax once in a while-"

"Don't you even dare pretend what you do is work you lunkhead!" She continued to peer through the leaves, still scowling. "That's forty-two times he's been…" Verde paused, struggling to find the exact word to describe the atrocity that was being committed, "snugglebunnying!"

Liam choked back a laugh. 'Snugglebunnying?"

"Be quiet or he'll hear us!" she snapped, turning away from him and back to the king.

"I can't believe you've been counting how many times the king has been, ahem, 'snugglebunnying'. Is someone…jealous?"

'WHAT?" Verde's face turned the same fiery shade of red as her hair, and Liam braced himself for the inescapable onslaught of rage he had just provoked. "I am NOT! As Records Minister it's my job to record everything that happens in Alpoko! I'm stuck doing all the work while you all lounge around, and I want the king to do a good job so that our nation isn't taken over or plunged into anarchy or something horrible like that! This has NOTHING, do you hear me, NOTHING at all to do with personal feelings, and even if it DID…" hearing laughter she cut off, peering through the leaves of the bush just in time to see the king heading into Princess Manor, but not before turning curiously to see where the sudden yelling had come from. Seeing nothing, the little king shrugged and disappeared into the building. Liam sighed, watching his friend's face as she continued to study the manor with narrowed eyes.

"Verde, next time you decide to go stalking the king, please make sure I'm not a part of it. Now can we _please _get out of this bush? These dang mosquitoes are sucking me dry."

_A few days later…_

One afternoon Liam was woken from a midday nap by the sound of the king's bell. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he left the servants quarters and slowly headed up the marble stairs to the throne room where the king sat, a troubled expression on his petite face and a small letter in his hand. He had been gazing at the note, but looked up expectantly as the Anything Minister entered the room.

"Liam…" he said slowly, "I need advice."

"Well my job is to aid the king, so fire away."

Corobo paused, seemed to gather his thoughts, and then spoke so softly Liam had to lean closer to hear him.

"It's about Verde… every time I've gone to see her recently, she's either gone or in a terrible mood and only talks to me for a few seconds, and then this morning Howser gave me _this_-" he tossed the letter to Liam, who opened it warily.

_Hello. What am I worth to you? You can pay anything you want, but I want you to show my value to you with cold hard Bol._

_~Verde_

Liam glanced up from Verde's hurried scrawl to see the king worriedly tapping the chair of his throne.

"Well?"

"Well…from the sound of this, it would appear like she's a tad angry with you…"

The king rolled his eyes impatiently. "I can see that Liam. What I'm asking you is _why._"

The Anything Minister bit his lip. _Should I tell him or not? Oh, I might as well. He's gotta find out somehow. _"Well buddy, you ever, uhm, you ever think you may be getting it on with too many chicks at a time and slacking off your work?

Corobo looked confused. "What?"

"You know, the girls-the princesses- Apricot and Spumoni and all the others. You spend a lot of time with them and, well, Verde's not happy about it 'cause she thinks you oughta be working, and also 'cause…You see what I mean?" he trailed off, hoping his point got across without him having to spell it out any further.

The little kings' eyes widened in surprise, and Liam thought he saw the slightest hint of a blush as well. "Oh. OH…I didn't…I never thought she…"

"Yeah. She does. So, uh, whatcha gonna do?"

"I have to go see her right now." Corobo jumped down from the throne and quickly headed for the door.

"Corobo, wait! Whatever you do, don't say you heard it from me!" Liam called after him. He sighed. _Hope that was the right thing to do…_

_A few minutes later…_

He wasn't exactly sure why he was crouched outside the door to the library, ear pressed against the wood in a determined effort to hear the conversation inside. As Anything Minister, it was his job to stay helpful to the king, right? Maybe it was a subconscious desire to be ready to save Corobo from Verde's imminent wrath. _Nah_, he thought, _I'm just nosy_. Whatever the reason, he had followed the king as stealthily as he could (which, he had to admit, wasn't very stealthy at all) down to the library. Corobo seemed to be too distracted to notice the lumbering figure trailing behind him, and Liam had managed to go undetected. Now muffled voices could be heard from the other side:

"_What do you want?"_ that was Verde, curt as usual around the king. His response was hesitant.

"_Well, I wanted to talk about this note…"_

"_What is there to talk about? It's self explanatory."_

"_Liam told me that-"_

"_What has he been telling you?!" _

Liam cringed, envisioning the onslaught he was going to have to endure later today.

"_He just said you-"_

"_I don't care what that lazy oaf has to say! As you may or may not have noticed when you're not frittering about all day I'm very busy running this kingdom-YOUR kingdom! Since no one else around here seems to take their duties seriously it all falls on me! So either get to the point or leave me to my work! _Her rant finished, Liam could her Verde panting slightly, waiting for the king's response. There was a tense pause.

"_I didn't know you felt so underappreciated Verde, honestly. I know you're really busy and you have a lot of pressure on you. But you should know that we're all thankful for you and everything you do for Alpoko, especially me. I would be a horrible king without your help. And…you're special to me Verde. Ever since I became king, almost everyone acts different around me because of who I am. But you've always told me what you really think of things. I need you to keep telling me when I'm screwing things up or being an idiot or whatever. I need you. _Liam heard Corobo take a deep breath. _Look, if you truly want money, I'll give you as many Bol as you want. But I don't want you to think you're only worth money to me, because you're not. You're worth much, much more. _

Then there was silence. A very, very long silence. _What's going on in there?_ Liam waited a few more seconds before quietly as possible pushing open the library door. Through the tiny crack, he watched Verde shake her head and slowly walk across the room until she was inches away from the little king. There was a small smile tugging on her lips.

"You don't have to pay me. Just don't forget who's really pulling the strings here."

And with that, she leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. The initial look of surprise on Corobo's face quickly softened as he pulled her into a tight hug.

_Geez, it's about time you two._

Unfortunately for Liam, at that moment Verde glanced up and locked eyes with the Anything Minister still peering into the room. Her smile soured instantly, replaced by flaming red cheeks and murderous intent.

"LIAM!"

_Uh-oh._

With an apologetic wave to the confused Corobo, Liam began to sprint as fast as his chunky legs could carry him from the now enraged Records Minister.

_They'll thank me for this one day…I just hope I live long enough to see it._

**Thanks for reading!**


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